Google’s Field TripÂ app is now available for the iPhone. First released on Android several months ago, this location discovery tool runs in the background of your phone. As soon as you get close to “something interesting”, an iOS notification will let you know of the POI in question. Select from a local feed of things you’d like to see, and Field Trip taps into numerous publications (Zagat, Cool Hunting, Atlas Obscura etc) to help you discover places/experiences under categories like Architecture, Food & Drinks, Offers & Deals, Movie locations and more.

Apple has updated its CardsÂ app to v1.1 and added card designs for Mother’s Day, which lands on the second Sunday of May in the US and Canada (among other countries). Here’s the list of what’s new:

â€¢ Beautiful letterpress cards for Mother’s Day
â€¢ New Get Well card designs
â€¢ Additional cards for birthdays, thank you and more
â€¢ Improves accuracy of envelope address verification
â€¢ Simplifies and improves the checkout process

First released back in October of 2011, Cards lets you design and mail real greeting cards to your family and friends for a small cost – $2.99 (including postage) within the US and $4.99 for rest of the world. The one downside to the Cards app is that it currently isn’t optimized for the iPad. But other than that, it’s free to download and a great tool to use if you plan on sending some custom made cards to your loved ones.

If you think Siri’s a bit tooÂ snobbishÂ for your liking (as in you don’t have an iPhone 4S), there’s a new digital assistant in town, and she’s not exclusive to only one iDevice. Meet Evi, the app that works on the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad (iOS 4 and higher required) and Android phones.

Evi is the revolutionary artificial intelligence here to help with all of your everyday information needs.

Unlike a search engine, which simply looks for matching words and shows you a list of websites, Evi understands what you want to know and gives back exactly what you’re after.

Need to know where the nearest bank is? Not a problem. Going out for dinner but can’t decide where? She can help with that too. The more you ask, the more she will learn, and thus she is improving all the time.

As we all know â€“ life can be stressful. And one way to make it a little bit more bearable is using an ambient sounds app to block out the annoying noises of everyday fuss. Whether in the office or outside they allow to, at least temporarily, shift your mind to someplace peaceful. Not content with only providing a listening experience, the developers behind Inception – The App released Dimensions. Adventures in the Multiverse, a unique app that adds some original gameplay elements to make it even more part of your routine.

A little over a year ago I started using Naturespace: Relax Meditate Escape Sleep (TMA Review) â€“ one of the best ambient nature sounds apps out there. Unique in the way it makes a fully engrossing surround sound experience even through the stock Apple earbuds, it has saved my nerve endings from countless deaths. And as we all know â€“ nerves donâ€™t regenerate. Well, Iâ€™m glad to say that shortly before Christmas (yes, I Know Iâ€™m a bit late on this but still) the developers informed me that they’d just rolled out a massive update, not only making an additional 15 tracks available for purchase but a few nifty features in the catalogue as well.

Apple’s Apple StoreÂ app has been updated and now adds some nifty features for iOS users in the US, namely Personal Pickup and EasyPay:

– Personal Pickup: Buy in the app and choose to pick up your order at any Apple Retail Store. Most in-stock orders are available for pickup within an hour. (U.S. only)
– EasyPay: Purchase select accessories in store quickly by scanning the barcode and completing your transaction right in the app. (U.S. only, requires iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S)
– Track your stuff:Â View the status of current and previous orders from the order status section in the More tab.
– Additional international support (Canada, China).
– Requires iOS 4.2 or higher

With EasyPay (good for only accessories at the moment), it’s a matter of simply choosing your item, scanning its barcode within the app, and paying with the credit card that’s stored on your Apple ID. This process certainly makes it easier for small item purchases and no longer will you have to wait in line to check out during a busy day at the store. You can see just how simple it is to use EasyPay with an actual purchase made by Engadget below.

Ever thought about brushing up your (Asian) culinary skills in the kitchen to impress your better half? Well if you own an iPad, the learning experience should be even more enjoyable now that Asian Cooking For Dummies HDÂ has found its way onto the App Store. We reviewedÂ the iPhone version early this year and found it to be quite the handy app. Now tweaked for the iPad’s larger screen, A.C.F.D HD offers over 60 recipes from four countries: China, Japan, India and Thailand. Also included are recipe cards, step-by-step instructions, demo videos, a measurement converter, timer and even a shopping check list tool.

Being an Asian myself, I can say with a great deal of certainty that Asian dishes can more than hold their own with what the rest of the world can offer. Thereâ€™s a reason why a good number of them are very popular in the worldâ€™s other six continents.

And as I discovered with Asian Cooking For Dummies, theyâ€™re also fairly easy to cook despite their elaborately-prepared appearances. With 60 traditional video recipes from China, India, Japan and Thailand, this easy-to-use app should make you kitchen-bound in no time.

Fresh off the recent update of their visual search tool Google Goggles, Google has released what promises to be an extremely handy tool while on the go – Google Places. Similar to apps like Yelp and AroundMe, Places allows users toÂ easily find attractions, restaurants and more based on their location.

Google Places with Hotpot helps you discover nearby places you’ll love. Quickly search for Restaurants, Cafes, Bars and other places, while on the go.

Google Places also makes it easy to quickly rate the places you visit. By rating places, you power Hotpot — Google’s new personalized recommendation engine, which lets you get place recommendations based on the places you like and recommendations from your friends.

To make the most of the app, you can visit alsoÂ google.com/hotpot from your computer and begin adding friends. Subsequently, the search results will not only be based off of recommendations from around the web and your personal preferences, but also what your friends have recommended. Check out Google Places now for free for your iPhone/iPod Touch.

Having released the Price Check app to help make online price comparisons easier using the iDevice, Amazon has now followed up with Amazon Deals, an iPhone app that lets users browse Amazon’s daily Gold Box Deals.

Stay up-to-date with Amazon Gold Box Deals wherever you go and never miss another deal. Amazon Deals for iPhone lets you check availability of current offers, schedule reminders, and purchase Lightning Deals and Gold Box Deals of the Day.

Amazon Deals features:
– Up to date Deal of the Day and Lightning Deal offers and availability status
– Ability to purchase deals via Amazonâ€™s secure mobile shopping experience
– View the dayâ€™s calendar of deal offers and set up alarms that remind you of individual deals
– Subscribe to Apple push notifications to receive alerts about future deals in specific categories
– Share great bargains youâ€™ve found via e-mail, SMS, Facebook or Twitter

Aside from viewing current specials, the ability to check off specific categories that will be part of the upcoming deals (via push notification) should make it much more convenient for shoppers hoping to snag certain items/gadgets at great prices. Best of all, Amazon Deals is free to download for your iDevice.